Karel Paukert invited his longtime friend and fellow Czech organist Jaroslav Tůma to open his ambitious Ars Organi series at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights with two recitals last weekend. The purpose of the seven-event festival is to celebrate the church’s music program and its distinguished collection of keyboard instruments. On Friday evening, September 15, Tůma took each of those four instruments out for a spin, and on Saturday afternoon, September 16, demonstrated his command of the art of improvisation in an hour-long program of symphonic scope. [Read more…]

Both during his tenure as curator of musical arts at the Cleveland Museum of Art (1974-2004), and since 1979 as organist at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, Karel Paukert has combined unerring musical taste with an uncanny ability to acquire splendid keyboard instruments. The three organs and harpsichord owned by St. Paul’s will be the subject of Ars Organi, a seven-event festival beginning on September 15 that matches the instruments with the particular interests of some of Paukert’s colleagues, friends, and students.

“I don’t want to say this is my swan song,” Paukert said in a telephone conversation, “but I want to pay homage to St. Paul’s Church and its generous donors with this festival. They have maintained this music program all the way back to Walter Blodgett, who was kind of a legend here.”

St. Paul’s Church moved to the Heights from 40th and Euclid in 1928, but the Great Depression and World War II delayed its building plans beyond the construction of a parish hall until 1952. [Read more…]

After the gradual spinning down of the summer concert season, September can sneak up on you. Here’s a list of early season openers and one-off events that Northeast Ohio music lovers should be sure to jot down in their calendars.

Ars Organi at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights

Organist Karel Paukert has created a festival to celebrate the collection of organs (and a harpsichord) that grace the music program at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights. The seven events in “Ars Organi” between September 15 and October 1 will feature the Walter Holtkamp Sr. instrument as well as the Vladimir Slajch chamber organ, the Gerhard Hradetzky Italian Baroque organ, and the Matthias Griewisch harpsichord — a fleet of keyboard instruments any church would be delighted to have at its disposal.

Performers include Prague organist Jaroslav Tuma (right) on Friday, September 15 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, September 16 at 4:00 pm (featuring his paraphrase of Smetana’s My Country); Oberlin professor James David Christie with members of Oberlin’s Collegium Musicum on Tuesday, September 19 at 7:30 pm; and University of Kansas professor James Higdon in a lecture and masterclass on Jehan Alain on Saturday, September 23 at 2:00 pm and a recital of Alain’s works on Sunday, September 24 at 4:00 pm. [Read more…]

Re•Views

Atlanta Symphony music director and Oberlin alum Robert Spano led the Oberlin Orchestra in impressive performances of Stephen Hartke’s cello concerto, Da Pacem — a world premiere featuring faculty cellist Darrett Adkins — and Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra in Finney Chapel on December 12. I caught the performance remotely via the live webcast. [Read on…]

The peripatetic CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra resumed its roving this past week from Wednesday, December 12 through Sunday, December 16 in a sprightly program led by principal guest conductor Stefan Willich with Cleveland Orchestra principal oboe Frank Rosenwein as soloist. I caught the second evening on Thursday, December 13 at Temple Tifereth-Israel in Beachwood. [Read on…]

The saga of New York City Opera, the company founded in 1944 at the behest of mayor Fiorello Laguardia to act as a populist foil to the socially elite Metropolitan Opera, is largely peculiar to New York, but its multiple near-death experiences and ultimate filing for bankruptcy in 2013 flash some warning signs across the industry. Will the most expensive of art forms continue to be viable as audiences and financial resources undergo gradual but seismic changes? [Read on…]

While many in the Cleveland area may be familiar with the choral works of Lakewood native David Conte — his music is regularly performed by ensembles such as Good Company — his recent CD, Everyone Sang, offers another side of his vocal-writing talents. Released in August on the Arsis label, this two-disc set comprises engaging works for solo voice and piano, as well as voice and instrumental ensembles. [Read on…]

Jack Sutte’s second album of solo trumpet music, Bent, follows Fanfare Alone and continues his passion for discovering new repertoire in that genre. After exploring various possible meanings of the album title in his liner notes (“images of metal, tubing, sound waves, refracted light”), Sutte writes that “solo works for trumpet are bent for the performer and listener; each requiring a willingness to fully participate in the unusual musical format.” [Read on…]

On his 2013 recording, The Rascal and the Sparrow — Poulenc meets Piaf, pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi delighted listeners with his captivating interpretations of music from two stalwarts of the 20th-century French chanson. On his latest CD, the pianist looks to the music of his native Italy for inspiration — specifically the emotionally charged Neapolitan song. [Read on…]

ACRONYM — Anachronistic Cooperative, Realizing Obscure Nuanced Yesteryear’s Masterpieces — does not play the kind of music that marketers can brand as “relaxing.” Just as classical musicians have questioned the selling of their art as soporific and soothing, these twelve string and keyboard players reject sleepiness, self-seriousness, and the confines of the canon. On The Battle, the Bethel & the Ball, they pursue their stated mission of giving life to unknown, “wild instrumental music of the 17th century.” [Read on…]